The Journey For Mark Vientos Was Worth the Wait
Mark Vientos' power bat has helped fuel the New York Mets in their recent surge, as the young third baseman continues to come up clutch.
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The Mets have toyed around with many options at third base over the last couple of seasons.
From 2004 through 2015, the Mets went into every season knowing who their third baseman was. But when David Wright’s career was derailed by injuries, the Mets never had a backup plan, and hot corner has been a carousel of failed prospects and stopgap veterans ever since.
Last night, a Mets third baseman carried them to a victory in a pennant race, in a way this franchise has not seen in over a decade. A 24-year-old slugger, who just happens to be homegrown, bookended a 6-4 win with a pair of two-run homers, lifting his team to their eighth-straight victory.
That young slugger is Mark Vientos. A player who first reached Triple-A at the end of 2021 and played over 200 games for the Syracuse Mets across parts of four seasons.
Now 91 games into his breakout 2024 season, it is fair to say that Vientos doesn’t have to worry about getting sent back down again. He has arrived, and he is here to stay for the New York Mets.
Considering where things started for Vientos this season (back in Triple-A), no one could have expected him to put together the run he has for the Mets at third base.
Whether he remains at the position long-term or not, Vientos has already put together the best season for a Mets third baseman since Wright.
Vientos’ Long Road to Getting the Keys to the Hot Corner
While Mark Vientos got his opportunities, it was former top 100 prospect Brett Baty who was consistently getting the first crack at third base for the Mets over the past few seasons.
In 2022, it was Baty who reached the big leagues first, despite playing just six games in Triple-A. Vientos had been there all season.
Baty got hurt after 11 games, while Vientos eventually made it up as a September call-up and played in 16 games down the stretch. In 2023, Baty was again the first to receive a promotion, first playing in a platoon with Eduardo Escobar, before being given the keys when Escobar was traded in June.
Baty and Vientos would share the roster at points during the 2023 season, with Vientos getting more of his playing time at DH than over at third base. The glove is really what stood in Vientos’ way of getting more big league opportunities, as he was very much a bat-first prospect.
Coming into spring training, Vientos had the inside track to being the Mets DH on Opening Day, or at the very least in the mix as a platoon bat to crush lefties. Baty on the other hand was showing great signs of improvement defensively and was expected to start at third base.
The plans changed on Vientos though when the Mets signed J.D. Martinez at the 11th hour of spring training, on March 23rd, less than a week before Opening Day. Martinez wasn’t expected to be ready in time, and would instead open the season on a minor league assignment to get at-bats.
While it was clear Vientos’ role had been filled, many thought he would at least get to cameo in it until Martinez was ready to join the big league roster. Instead, the Mets rostered utilityman Zack Short and sent Vientos down to Triple-A.
It was a major setback for Vientos, who blasted a team-best five home runs in 19 Grapefruit League games. The power has always been Vientos’ calling card, but with it came strikeouts.
In 56 at-bats in spring training, Vientos struck out 19 times. He also struggled to hit much beyond his home runs, hitting .232 with a .259 on-base percentage. The Mets wanted Vientos to play everyday, with a big part of that assignment being over at third base.
What we didn’t realize at the time, is that the Mets were preparing their contigency plan if Brett Baty struggled again at the big league level.
To begin this season, Vientos played 31 games with the Syracuse Mets in Triple-A. He was hoping for another chance at the majors and smashed six home runs with a slash line of .285/.376/.500.
Vientos’ first big league opportunity came in the form of a three-game stint when Starling Marte went on the bereavement list at the end of April. Vientos took little time to make an impact, as he hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning of his second big league game of the season.
Despite his heroics, Vientos was still optioned back to Syracuse when Marte was returned to the team after his three-day leave. A few weeks later, the Mets called Vientos back up and gave him the opportunity to platoon with Baty at third.
Baty was showing himself well over at third base defensively, but his bat continued to lag behind, as he posted an OPS of .633 across 50 games played.
Vientos came back up and hit the ground running, posting a .310/.370/.548 slash line in the month of May. As Vientos began to cut into Baty’s playing time, the Mets eventually made the move to get a better utility player for their roster, sending Baty down to Triple-A in exchange for Jose Iglesias.
In doing so, the Mets gave Vientos the keys to third base at the big league level for the first time in his career.
At age 24, Vientos is having a remarkable year. He’s hit 24 home runs with 62 RBIs and has added a significant boost to the New York lineup offensively.
While his defense has graded out below average based on the metrics (-8 DRS, -7 OAA), Vientos has held his own to the naked eye.
Ultimately, the Mets will gladly give Vientos playing time with below-average fielding if it means he’ll contend with the National League’s top third basemen in home runs.
Because that’s what he’s doing now.
In the National League, Vientos trails on Manny Machado for the lead in home runs. Machado has hit 25 home runs in 134 games played, while Vientos has 24 in just 91 games. Meanwhile Eugenio Suarez is tied with Vientos, but in 138 games.
Even better, Vientos is leading all MLB third basemen with his .905 OPS and his 151 wRC+. Yes, Vientos is pacing the game’s best superstars like Rafael Devers and Jose Ramirez in these rate stats, albeit in a slightly smaller sample.
Vientos has gone from a platoon bat to face lefties as a DH, to the Mets everyday third baseman. Just like Wright before him, Vientos is suddenly batting third in a pennant race in New York and he is thriving in the big moments.
With Pete Alonso’s impending free agency, there is a chance that Vientos could move across the diamond next season. But for now, no one is taking the keys to third base away from Vientos.
Will Vientos Be Able to Sustain This Moving Forward?
During the off-season, it’s likely Vientos will work on positioning and fielding at first base, just in case. If Alonso were to leave in Free Agency, there’s a legitimate chance Vientos would move to first base.
If that happens, the Mets would have options ahead. New York could consider Baty at third base next season. He’s had 254 at-bats in Syracuse and has launched 16 home runs. He’s also added 43 RBIs and has slashed .262/.358/528 during his time in Triple-A.
That’s almost identical to Vientos’ slash line in the minors earlier this year, with an even bigger sample size. That said, the Mets hoped Baty would be a September call-up to see if his time in the minors would finally translate to the big-league level. But Baty recently fractured his left index finger, and the idea that he’d return with the big league club in September dwindled.
Additionally, with Vientos’ success, the Mets suggested trying Baty at second base in the minors. Before his injury, he had started over there with Syracuse for a bit, but the Mets also remain high on Ronny Mauricio, a 23-year-old shortstop, who would potentially command either second or third base.
Vientos’ fate doesn’t solely rely on where Alonso ends up in Free Agency. He’ll be a Mets starter and hit in the middle of the lineup, no matter what. However, he didn’t look comfortable in the four games where he played first base this season.
As the Mets head into a playoff push, Vientos has recently struggled against left-handed pitching. This is an area he rarely struggled with earlier in the year.
He’s hit a .269 ISO and a wOBA of .438 against lefties this season. However, prior to his walk-off homer against lefty Justin Wilson last night, Vientos had contributed a .000 ISO and a wOBA of .224 with 31.8% of strikeouts over the last 30 days against lefties.
Meanwhile, the right-handed slugger has seen righties much better over the last 30 days. In that time, he has smashed a .308 ISO and a wOBA of .441 against other righties.
His strikeouts are still high against both sides of the plate. But that’s nothing to worry about. 26-year-old rookie Aaron Judge struck out 30.7% of the time in his first entire season with the Yankees and has turned out just fine.
Just imagine what would’ve happened to Vientos if he never got a chance to swing against righties with Baty platooning there. We probably wouldn’t have been able to see Vientos against right-handed pitching like we have recently.
When Vientos was called up in May, he hit to an OPS of .917. He followed that with a .888 OPS in June and a .884 OPS in July. Nevertheless, he started August off a bit worse.
New York’s hitting coach, Eric Chavez, believes those numbers are about to come back to life as we head into September. He told the New York Post that Vientos looks very comfortable at the plate. He acknowledged that hot and cold streaks would happen but instilled confidence that he and Vientos found something in his swing that would work for a long, productive career.
Vientos’ new routine involves adding more training reps against off-speed pitches and not facing high-velocity offerings in batting practice. Pitchers have adjusted to Vientos and have given him fewer fastballs. He went from 33.3% of fastballs in 2022 to only 21.4% this season, with a bigger sample size.
But once the pitchers adjusted, Vientos made his adjustment to one-up them. That’s why he’s seen the success he has this season.
Vientos is here to stay, whatever happens in the offseason with the Mets. New York has team control over Vientos until 2030 and will try to build around a potential cornerstone of the Mets’ future to bring a World Series to Queens.